10Sep 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit

PASS, Tools, Visual Studio
It looks like this year is going to be pretty good. They've expanded the program. If you're not going, you should consider it. Personally, I'm pretty excited. I'm presenting our build and deployment process using Visual Studio Team System Database Edition. I've got the first half of the presentation down cold because it's how we've been doing our deployments for a couple of years now. The second half concerns me a bit. I'm showing the new release that works with SQL Server 2008. Unfortunately that new release isn't done and I keep having to update my code and slides as the new versions come out with different functionality. I'm more than a little bit nervous about that part of the presentation. I wish there was a way to bounce it…
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18Aug 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Training and Learning

SQL Server, Tools
I think these are usually two different things, but most people conflate the two. There was a great discussion over at SQL Server Central based on an editorial by Steve Jones. It's worth reading through to see how people learn or get themselves trained. One common theme is reading books. I'm looking at stacks of them all over my desk, so it would be hard to deny their use. If you too like to read, then I've got something for you. Red Gate is doing a promotion where, when you purchase SQL Tool Belt, you can also download five E-Books offered by Apress. Several of them look pretty interesting, so this is a good deal. Not to mention, if you're not using some of the tools from SQL Tool Belt already, you're…
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15Aug 2008 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

SQL Server 2008 Install, cont.

Tools
OK. Hopefully you're all reading this stuff BEFORE trying to do the install and certainly BEFORE uninstalling everything in sight. The latest version of SQL Prompt, version 3.9, is 2008 compatible AND doesn't cause this problem with the install. So, I've got to reinstall the software. Time to track down my license. I hope I kept that email.
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15Aug 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL Server 2008 Install, cont.

Tools
OK. I found some information. The first suggests uninstalling SQL Prompt. I tried it and that did the trick. The second suggest was to do a brute-force removal of the registry key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90. I didn't get there.  Install is running on the desktop now. That seems a bit mean of Microsoft, requiring me to uninstall Red Gate's SQL Prompt, especially since it's such a great little tool. I wonder if I can install it on top of 2008? Time for some more research.
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15Jul 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Benefits of a Tear Down & Rebuild in a Database

Tools, Visual Studio
Using the Team Edition of Visual Studio for Databases (VSDB) enables you to build a database out of source control. This means you can treat your database like code, as much as you can. The fact is, because of persistence, a database just isn't code. Because you have to keep all the data previously entered, when you deploy a new version of your database to production, you don't simply get to replace the database like you do with the code. You have to run scripts that alter that which can be altered, but preserve the existing data everywhere. That's just how it is in production. You have to do the work necessary to protect your data. Not so in Development. Development (and QA, Test, Financial Test, Performance Test) is the place…
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18Jun 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL Server Management Pack Resources

Tools
There aren't any. That's not entirely true. There is the SQL Server Management Pack Guide from MS. It gives you the basics. After that you have to fall back generic documentation and help for the most part. If you haven't already, get a copy of System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed. It doesn't cover the SQL Server Management Pack in any detail, but it gives you a lot of what you need to understand the management pack in general. The next best source of information is the newsgroup microsoft.public.opsmgr.sql. From there, you have to go to System Center Forum. Watch for articles by Tom LaRock. He seems to know as much about it as anyone. He's presenting at the PASS Summit this year, so you might want to attend. There…
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12Jun 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR: Final First Impression

Tools, Visual Studio
I finally finished my initial set of tests with the GDR CTP release. It's great! They've solved so many of the deployment problems that we had been experiencing that it's now hard to wait until they actually release the product. The bad news is, it completely changes my presentation at PASS. I'm still going to cover 2005/2008, but now I'm going to cover the GDR as well. I have one hour to hit both processes... That's not going to be easy. Anyway, they've broken everything down to either work locally only or as part of the larger project. It all gets checked into source control. It all comes back out. No manual processes (like checking in the .user file) necessary. Thank you Gert Drapers, wherever you are.
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11Jun 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR: Still More First Impressions

Tools, Visual Studio
Following on to my adventures in creating multi-environment deployment processes with the new version of Data Dude (DBPro, VSTS Database Edition, whatever we're calling it this week). I've create a new configuration, copying all the settings from the Debug configuration. I'm adding a new Deployment configuration file and making a change. The deploy worked. Woo hoo! Now to get really funky. I'll create a new "Sql command variables file:" and add a variable for setting the data directory. Now to deploy and... Urk! Failed. It's not recognizing my variable. Now I'm stuck. I've checked the syntax. It's right. I double checked it all and reran deploy. Now it works... Color me confused. Whatever. Successful test. Time to create another configuration, simulating a QA server... Got that working too. I don't…
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11Jun 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR: More First Impressions

Tools, Visual Studio
Because I was having so many problems yesterday after I tried doing everything at once, creating multiple deployments to multiple servers with a variety of different settings... Anyway, it didn't work. So today I went back to square one. I created a blank project.  Yesterday I used the schema compare to capture the database, but today I right clicked on the project and found "Import Database Objects and Settings..." which did it all for me. Yee Ha! Anyway, after getting all the objects in, I started trying to deploy. This time I got errors on FK's. It somehow changed the order on the compound keys columns. While editing, I found that if I messed up the syntax and then saved the file, I didn't get an instantaneous error. That bummed…
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10Jun 2008 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR: First Impressions

Tools, Visual Studio
Since I have to work through this thing to set up a test project to verify our build & deployment processes with the new tool (see my teeth grinding post below) I might as well post a spot evaluation of the tool as I go through it. I'm creating a new database project (and I'd rather not talk about that). Rather than go through a wizard, I decided to create a blank database project and now I'm capturing the database by using the new Schema Compare. It looks mostly the same. One new thing that came up immediately is a "Permissions" folder. It has all the GRANT CONNECT, GRANT EXECUTE ON SCHEMA that I had in my database. In the 2005 version of VSTS, we maintained this stuff in post…
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